A newly reported issue with Google’s open-source Chromium Web browser points towards preparations being made to launch rich notifications for Apple’s OS X. This in turn could eventually be used to build out a Mac version of Google Now. As noted by the folks at The Next Web, Google has been in the process of porting its Chrome OS notification system to Chromium, and subsequently the Chrome Canary development browser over the past few months. In the past, only Chrome OS and Microsoft Windows were able to access rich notifications, but Tuesday’s discovery shows support is now being tested for Apple’s OS X.

The issue log was found in Chromium’s Code Reviews, titled “[Mac][MC] Implement notification updates and relayouts,”and was found by Chromium evangelist François Beaufort. Citing the log entry, Beaufort noted that rich notifications for Mac are “still under heavy development but you can play with them by running chrome with the –enable-rich- notifications switch.

This discovery suggests that Google Now, the card-based intelligent personal assistant, may soon be available to Mac users as the notification center is the key to implementing the service. Chrome OS and Windows users have access to Google Now, though the implementation is a bit rocky compared to Android and OS offerings at the moment.